Sunday Gravy, Definitely Worth The Time

You can’t bottle the taste of Sunday Gravy. I learned about Sunday Gravy from Italian friends whose families would spend all day cooking for a Sunday night dinner. Basically Gravy=Sauce. Some families say gravy because you are cooking meats in the sauce to get those meat juices, making it a gravy in their eyes. I have never made the same Sunday Gravy twice simply because I use different meats each time depending on what I have in the freezer or what is reasonably priced at the grocery store.

Because it’s summer, I don’t love spending tons of time in the kitchen, but I don’t mind spending one day to make a big batch of something, so that I can freeze it and eat it throughout the month. I don’t have to worry about cooking every night and can go out and play. And let me tell you, when making this dish, make sure that you have half a day free, but it is totally worth it in taste and how much you end up with. Not only do you have gravy for pasta, but you also have an entire platter of tasty meat to eat. With this batch I ended up with veal, pork rib tips, meatballs and sausages

This month’s Sunday Gravy was wonderful. Give it a whirl or change it up to whatever meat you feel like eating.

Take a big pot that you will be stewing everything in and start heating up the crushed tomatoes and salt. Take one of the empty tomato cans, fill it up with water and throw that water into the pot as well.

While that is doing its own thing, in a pan, heat up oil and garlic and fry up the veal, pork and sausages until everything is golden brown on all sides. Toss all that meat into the pot with the tomatoes. Discard all the garlic in the pan and leave whatever oil or brown bits are left and start working on your meatballs.

For the meatballs, mix up all the ingredients together with your hands and start forming meatballs to whatever size you want them. Start frying that up till they’re all around golden brown and toss the meatballs into the tomato pot. From the time it took you to take care of all of that meat, your tomato pot is probably boiling right now. Leave it boiling. Now in your pan, you will have all of this flavorful oil, fat and brown bits. I use this. It seems like a waste to me not to. So heat up the pan and put in your tomato paste. Stir, so that everything is mixed well, don’t forget to scrape up the brown bits! Then pour that all that into the tomato pot, throw in the fresh basil and it a stir. Lower the heat so that the gravy is simmering rather than boiling. Cover and simmer for 3 hours, stirring it every 45 minutes or so. If you see that the gravy is getting thicker than you prefer to eat it, add in water. Sometimes I will also throw in potatoes because I love potatoes, but keep in mind that this throws the taste of the sauce off a little bit and also thickens it up considerably. Serve it with your favorite pasta, or even just with bread and you are all set.

Soooo good! I still have one more batch of gravy and meats left in the freezer that I can’t wait to attack. I think I’m going to start making Sunday Gravy every other month.